Police fatally shoot man in Times Square (VIDEO)

Police fatally shoot man in Times Square (VIDEO)

Police keep watch outside the Marriott Marquis in Times Square following a shooting incident December 10, 2009 in New York City. An undercover police officer exchanged fire with a Times Square street vendor, killing him near the Marriott Marquis hotel.

A man was shot and killed by police in New York's Times Square Saturday afternoon, after he refused to drop the knife he was wielding.

Police saw the man, whom they observed smoking marijuana near West 44th Street and Seventh Avenue, NBC News reported. When approached by officers, he became belligerent, and threatened them with a large kitchen knife.

The officers ordered the man to drop his weapon repeatedly at they pursued him a number of blocks south of the tourist-filled Times Square, according the the Associated Press.

According to the police, officers pepper-sprayed the man six times, but he did not let go of the 11-inch knife, the AP reported.

“He was swinging at people as he ran,” 17-year old Jobby Nogver, who was visiting from Boston, told the New York Times. Nogver watched as about a dozen police officers finally surrounded the man and shots were fired on Seventh Avenue between 37th and 38th Streets.

“I can’t tell you how many shots,” he said. “It was a lot.”

Karon Rakes, who was visiting New York from Cleveland, told the Times the man was taunting the police.

“He just started saying, ‘Come on, come get me,’ ” Rakes said.

The man was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital, the AP reported.

The he officers involved in the shooting will be on required administrative duty while the incident is reviewed, Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne told CNN.